April 3 and April 13 recaps

•Yev returns the stolen money to the Medons, and discovers the source of Ladow Medon's backing.

•The Republic finds itself in a losing battle over Chommell Prime and begins a tactical retreat.

•The party boards the Sith command ship Devastator in hopes of buying the Republic time.

•While Yvegeny disables ship power, Bao and Ras face off against Bao's former apprentice.

•Devo helps rescue Aluni and Plutara.

•While the Capanata escapes Chommell Prime, Bao stays behind to confront the Sith.

As the party heads back to the Republic fleet, Yvegeny uses his computer skills to try to track where the credits Ladow Medon stole from the other Medons went. Using the help of the entire party to help sift through the coding, Yev returns all the money to the Medons who lost it, and also found out that Ladow Medon had received money from Riga the Hutt to help finance his cure for the Gen'Dai mental instability — which he used to secure their loyalty — which was being concocted by Eutix Research Laboratories. The money in Ladow's account goes to Chu'un, for being a nice guy, and Tarn, who lost his estate.

The Republic blockade runner arrives at the battle; the Republic fleet is holding its own against the Sith ships, though they're taking a beating. The ship makes a quick boarding onto the Honor of Coruscant, as a Sith transmission is broadcast to the fleet — any ship that surrenders will be spared and shown amnesty, and the Sith encourage mutiny to get the job done. The party meets up with Jedi Masters Kavar, Jenica Vigil, and Geis Choi, where they're told that most of the defensive line (which was taking the biggest pounding) has surrendered to the Sith. The hyperdrive is offline, but Republic techs are working on fixing it; Kavar orders a tactical withdrawal after more than half of the Republic ships surrender.

The party decides to board the Devastator (Talvon Esan's command ship) to slow it down enough for the Republic ships to escape... except Devo, who is really more concerned with his employer, Aluni Medon, and getting her to safety, as well as his Jedi friend Plutara. He appropriates a shuttle to pick them up and get them to safety. Before he leaves, he calls Aluni and tells her to leave; she says she's got a ship that can get her to safety. He also calls Plutara, who is quite surprised to hear from him (not even knowing he was on Chommell Prime) but glad to hear from him.

Yvegeny syncs up the Capanata with a Sith boarding ship's transponder signal, and Aig flies casually towards the Devastator, telling the ship they're back for repairs. They successfully dock, and then the party splits up.

Yvegeny

Yev heads for the power generators to disable the ship's power. The weapons batteries are on their own systems, so he won't be able to touch those, but main power and auxiliary power are fair game.

At the primary power core, there's a few Sith soldiers guarding the control station; Yev lobs a grenade and runs to a spot to pick them off, but only two of the troopers fall for his ruse; the other two notice him. One opens fire while the other activates an alarm; Yev clears through them and quickly sets his explosives (blowing up the power core) just as reinforcements arrive: a Dark Jedi and more troopers. Yev quickly dispatches with the soldiers, but is blasted by the Dark Jedi's Force lightning. He quickly shoots the Dark Jedi dead and books it toward the auxiliary power generator — making sure to steal the Sith robes and mask to disguise himself.

On his way there, Yev realizes that the doors are closing behind him — someone is on to him and luring him into an ambush. Realizing he has no real choice but to walk into a trap, Yev proceeds anyway, and enters the engineering section, run by droids. He bluffs his way past administrator A3-C9 to the auxiliary core, only for the door to seal behind him and A3 and the lights to go out. When Yev lights a glow rod, it is shot out of his hand, leaving him in darkness.

A voice taunts Yev in the darkness; when Yev tries to force the voice's hand by holding the droid hostage, the voice says to just shoot the droid, he doesn't care, so Yev does. They talk about the Republic, the Sith, Blackwater – the voice admits it works for the Sith and used to work for Blackwater. Yev says that he works for the Genoharadan, which the voice scoffs at, and Yev offers to do the "secret Genoharadan handshake." The voice is suckered in by this deception, and as soon as he gets his hands on Yvegeny, Yev plugs him at point blank range with his blaster. The voice howls in pain and staggers back, and Yev lobs a grenade, which luckily hits him and sends him flying. Yev stands over him with a glowrod — revealing a Nagai gunslinger — and gets the controls to turn the lights back on. He sets his explosives, destroys the auxiliary power generator, and leaves.

Bao, Ras, Drallon, and Haesh

Using stealth field generators, Bao, Ras, and their Padawans sneak toward the command bridge, to take on Talvon Esan (The Butcher) and force a confrontation. Unfortunately, not far from the docking bay, Drallon accidentally stumbles and blows their cover; a Sith adept notices, and Ras tries to use the Force to distract her, only for a melee to begin. They quickly take out the adept and a few troopers, but Drallon is shot and badly wounded in the assault. Ras quickly patches him up and stuffs him, unconscious, in an out-of-the-way closet where he won't be noticed, so he doesn't slow the party down.

The group proceeds up a turbolift toward the command bridge, but must first get off and transfer near the officers' quarters. When they arrive, they are greeted by two Sith officers; Bao trips one of them with the Force, but they seem nonplussed until Ras announces that they're there to kill their Dark Jedi commanders. It seems that the officers are used to any Force-user who comes along and abuses them being a Sith, so one officer pushes an alarm — only to find that the power there is out (thanks, Yev!). He then gets on his comlink to radio ahead, which Ras promptly drains the energy of; he then gets his friend's comlink, which Ras explodes in his hands. He screams out about the metal shards in his hand now, and Bao gives him a medpac to treat his wound. The officers point the way to the bridge and Bao, Ras and Haesh continue on their way.

On their way to the bridge, they are stopped by a mysterious human figure wearing a spacer's outfit — not the traditional Sith robes or facial tattoos — whom Bao quickly recognizes as Shan Tamlen, his first apprentice, who joined with Revan in the Mandalorian Wars. Shan tells them he's there to stop them — he works for Talvon Esan, who "they don't send for the little stuff." Shan agrees to let Haesh go without a fight, and Bao offers himself as a prisoner if he lets Ras pass. Shan agrees and hurls Bao into a wall with the Force, saying they'll need to "bloody him up first," then tries to Force grip Ras to keep her from leaving either.

A fight breaks out — Ras using her lightsaber, Bao relying on his blaster (after finding that his mind shards can't break through Shan's formidable mental defenses), and Shan not using (or carrying) a lightsaber, just relying on pure telekinetic power. After a few good shots from Bao and hits from Ras, Shan breaks off the fight and silently takes his leave. Still, Ras and Bao are badly hurt from the fight, and they debate whether continuing to go after the Butcher at this point would merely be a suicide mission.

Devo

Mr. Morden comes in for a landing on the Expanse; he can see many ships taking off to evacuate the Expanse, although there are still many people walking the streets who don't have a way offworld. As soon as he lands, he finds Plutara is not there to meet him and he can't seem to contact her. He locks down his ship and waits around for her.

A Neimoidian shopkeeper approaches Devo and asks if his ship has enough room to take him with it. Devo insists that it's strictly for the Jedi, and the increasingly desperate Neimoidian offers credits for a seat on his ship. Devo gets angry and points out his big gun, and the Neimoidian backs off.

After searching through the Expanse for a while, Devo finally finds Plutara, and they head back to the shuttle. They're approached by a Pau'an who introduces himself as Turvon Medon, an administrator on the Expanse, who asks for passage offworld. Plutara doesn't mind, so Devo agrees to take him on as well.

Three mercenaries see this and approach Devo and his group as well for a ride off of the Expanse; Devo tries to lie and say there's a Neimoidian who has a ship, but they don't buy it. Devo grabs his weapon, and the mercs grab theirs; before the mercenaries can act, Devo lays waste to them in a burst of autofire, and Devo, Plutara, and Turvon board their shuttle and take off.

Endgame

Aig radios Yvegeny, saying the Capanata has attracted some attention from the Sith and they need to think about getting out of there. Yev books it to the ship rather than try and disrupt the Devastator further, and Ras realizes she should pick up Drallon and get off the ship before they can't escape. Bao, however, decides to stay, saying he should still try and reach the Butcher because they might never get another chance.

Ras picks up Drallon and they hustle to the Capanata, just as Yvegeny leaves a bomb behind for anybody who might be following. Haesh asks where his master is, and Ras informs him that Bao decided to stay behind. After a brief skirmish with Sith interceptors, the Capanata jumps to hyperspace. Devo's shuttle docks with the Honor of Coruscant before it takes off, and together they head to hyperspace as well.

DM's Notes:

• Totally intended for the ending to be a tense space battle of holding off Sith interceptors (and staying away from the capital ships' tractor beams) long enough for the Capanata to jump to hyperspace, but cut it for time, sadly.

March 21 recap

•Aluni warns of Sabinus' plot to kill Tarn Medon.

•The party makes the acquaintance of Atherton, a Ryn who sticks to the shadows.

•The Medons fall from power as most of their number is killed in a surprise attack by one of their own.

Having just recovered the carbonite-frozen Aluni Medon from two of Sabinus' Gen'Dais, the party goes to Aluni's estate. Yvegeny decides to send a message to Sabinus, vis-a-vis his PR people, saying Yev's the guy who gets things done. Ras decides to go for a more direct message and has the corpse of the Gen'Dai they killed shipped to Sabinus.

A house doctor thaws out Aluni Medon, who is disoriented by the experience. Aluni says that Sabinus called her to a private meeting, looking to work with the Republic, but she was knocked unconscious. She says Tarn Medon has called a meeting at his estate this evening to rally support for the Republic; Sabinus told her he plans to attend the meeting and kill Tarn to bring the Medons to join the Sith. As she's still coming out of hibernation sickness, she advises the party to go as her representatives and protect Tarn.

Yev calls Aig to get 45 good men to help him arrest Sabinus, but Aig is unsure he'll be able to find any and sets to find some. Instead, to take advantage of his security credentials and be able to get his weapons in, Yvegeny goes as the personal bodyguard of Chuun Medon, a rather awkward, unimportant cousin. Chuun is quite happy to get some attention for once, glad he's "important enough to kill." Evidently the guy does not get out much.

The party travels to Tarn's floating estate — which, as previously established, is quite ornate — and heads to the ballroom, where Medons are mingling. The party sees Aya Lim and Lokksnek, the Trandoshan Republic diplomat, and discusses the situation. Atherton, a Ryn infiltrator working for Norbu Medon, yet another family member, surreptitiously eavesdrops on the conversation, but Lokksnek notices him and calls him over, where he is introduced to the group.

While Yev gets Chuun laid by a non-family member, Devo spots Sabinus and his wife in the crowd and goes over to him. Sabinus is less than pleased to see Devo, referring to him as "Aluni's whelp," and dodges any responsibility for what happened to Aluni. Bao and Ras begin searching the room quietly, looking for any way Sabinus might sabotage the proceedings (though Devo does notice Sabinus carrying a sheathed rapier at his side).

It suddenly occurs to Bao that there are not many Gen'Dai in the room, despite the fact that most of the Medons would have brought them along as security. He tells Tarn Medon, who also finds it odd and relays the message to his security chief to begin investigating. The party splits up to tail Sabinus and stick close to Tarn, just as the power suddenly goes out.

Ladow Medon, the Medon with whom the party first met when they arrived at Chommell Prime (who had also invited the Sith to their meeting), broadcasts a message over the estate: He's sickened that the great Medon family, which has stood independent for millennia, is actually considering allying with the Republic or the Sith; they should stand only for themselves. He's procured a cure for the Gen'Dais' racial mental instability as they age, and so the Gen'Dai gladly provided him with their masters' access codes. Ladow is taking their money and making a run for it (as he says the Medons don't deserve what they have if they're willing to stoop so low), but not before using some cloaked ships of his own to fire on the Republic and Sith, ending the peace and triggering an all-out war between the two enemies.

As the Medons scramble about to figure out what to do, an explosion is heard at the repulsor engines of the estate, as Tarn's estate shudders and begin a freefall into the planet core. Yvegeny quickly calls Nasha Luk to get her ship over and pick them up, and she heads over post haste. Ras grabs Sabinus, Devo grabs Tarn, Yev grabs Chuun and his date, and everybody begins running for the docking bay in time. Bao tries to lead people to safety, but is unable to communicate with the panicking crowd well enough for them to catch up with him, and he's forced to run it alone.

When the party arrives at the docking bay, most of the ships are gone — stolen, presumably, by the Gen'Dai — as Nasha's ship comes in. Bao spots a Medon on the ground nearby, not moving — it's Ladow, surprisingly, and he's been killed by electrocution. He hauls the corpse aboard the ship as the party and about 20 survivors board. As Nasha's ship pulls away, Ras uses the Force to hold up the falling estate as long as she can so that more ships can get away (and about three or four do so).

Nasha starts flying her ship toward the Honor of Coruscant, but while comming the flagship, Ras is told by Plutara that the fighting has already begun, and they won't be able to receive the transport for docking in the middle of battle. The party decides to go to Aluni's estate, instead, to regroup and plan their next move. They turn in Sabinus to Aluni's custody — she has a room she can keep him in. Plutara says she can send a blockade runner to pick up the party shortly.

Bao uses his psychometric powers on Ladow's blaster and sees that he was walking towards his ship when he was electrocuted from behind — he didn't get to see his attacker, though he saw someone walk past him as he died. Bao recognizes the shoe as belonging to Aya Lim, and the party realizes that Aya probably killed Ladow with dark side lightning and stole his ship to escape, putting the question of her redemption in doubt.

As the party waits for the blockade runner to arrive, Devo and another member of Aluni's security staff interrogate Sabinus, who is crestfallen over having lost everything — his fortune, his wife, and his Gen'Dai servants. He says he had no knowledge of Ladow's plan — he'd simply planned to challenge Tarn to an honor duel in the ballroom. When pressed, he admits he helped shelter the Sith at a hidden shipyard (which the party has already been to), and gives up the names of his Sith contacts — Undawai and Stragos — but Devo is unimpressed.

DM's Notes:

• I had originally intended for Ladow Medon to get away in the end, and then the party would find him again later. But I kinda thought it would be silly to have him as some sort of recurring villain, because I didn't really see him as some sort of megalomaniac raising an army or anything, and his whole goal was to not join the Republic or Sith. So I thought it'd be more interesting to have him be killed right after he carries out his big plan, and raise the whole question of "Is Aya Lim light or dark? Did she kill Ladow Medon, and if so, why?" I didn't want the party walking away from Chommell Prime thinking, "Well, everything's going to be super-OK with Aya from now on," because I think she's an interesting character and I'd like to keep her around as long as possible.
• My original intent was to have the skill challenge be whether Aluni and/or Tarn lived. Aluni not going to the "Landsmeet," as it were, and each party member trying something different changed those plans. Too bad Bao Koon left those people to die.
• The whole Sabinus/Ladow thing was a bit of a red herring on my part. I'd always intended that while Sabinus was the most open ally of the Sith, he was inadvertently drawing attention away from the more radical elements (i.e. Ladow). I do wish I'd done a little more with Ladow, but everything proceeded as I had foreseen.

Character Composite: Marn "Gryph" Hierogryph and Slyssk

Marn "Gryph" Hierogryph, a small-time Snivvian crime lord with delusions of importance, is one of the stars of the Knights of the Old Republic comic book series. He is the longtime nemesis of Padawan screw-up Zayne Carrick during his apprenticeship, but as luck would have it, when Zayne finally does arrest Gryph, he's accused of slaughtering his fellow Padawans and has to make a run for it. Gryph's invaluable expertise helps Zayne survive long enough to clear his name, and the two go into business together.

Slyssk, introduced in KotOR #13, is a poor excuse for a Trandoshan; a lousy warrior, he makes his living as a starship thief. Gryph hired him to steal a ship on Ralltiir, but they disagreed over price. Gryph had Zayne "accidentally" knock a pylon down near Slyssk in time for Gryph to "save" him, with an unexpected result — Slyssk, moved by emotion over someone caring enough to save his life, swore a life debt to Gryph right then and there. Not knowing what else to do with him, Gryph put him to work fixing up the ship.

These stats represent Gryph and Slyssk as of the end of the Knights of the Old Republic series.

Marn “Gryph” Hierogryph, Mastermind (CL 11)

Male Snivvian Scoundrel 7/Noble 1/Crime Lord 3

Destiny 2; Force 3
Init +11; Senses +12
Languages: Basic, Bocce, Huttese, Old Corellian, Snivvian, Sy Bisti
-
Defenses: Ref 28 (flat-footed 24), command cover +1, Shelter; Fort 21, Will 27 (32 vs. Deception, Persuasion)
HP 61; Threshold 21
-
Speed 4 squares
Melee +7 unarmed (1d3+4)
Ranged +9 by weapon
Base Atk +8; Grp +2
Atk Options: Point Blank Shot
Encounter Powers: Better Lucky than Dead (2/encounter), Contingency Plan, Knack, Lucky Stop
-
Abilities: Str 8, Dex 12, Con 10, Int 18, Wis 14, Cha 18
Special Qualities: cold protection, command cover +1
Talents: Attract Minion, Better Lucky than Dead, Contingency Plan, Exceptional Skill (Deception), Fool’s Luck, Knack, Lucky Stop, Shelter
Feats: Expert Briber, Point Blank Shot, Predictive Defense, Recurring Success (Better Lucky than Dead), Silver Tongue, Skill Focus (Deception, Persuasion), Skill Training (Initiative), Unwavering Resolve, Weapon Groups (pistols, simple)
Skills: Deception +19, Gather Information +14, Initiative +11, Knowledge (bureaucracy) +14, Knowledge (galactic lore) +14, Perception +12, Persuasion +19, Stealth +16, Use Computer +14
Possessions: minion (Slyssk), 4 credit chips, datapad, video recorder, winning smile

Slyssk, Indebted to Gryph

Male Trandoshan nonheroic 8

Init +3; Senses +4, darkvision
Languages: Basic, Dosh
-
Defenses: Ref 13 (flat-footed 13), Fort 14, Will 10
HP 41; Threshold 12
-
Speed 6 squares
Melee +7 unarmed (1d4+5)
Ranged +5 blaster pistol (3d6+4)
Base Atk +6; Grp +7
-
Abilities: Str 13, Dex 9, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 10
Special Qualities: limb regeneration
Feats: Armor Proficiency (light), Skill Focus (Mechanics), Thick Skin, Toughness, Vehicular Surge, Weapon Groups (pistols, simple)
Skills: Mechanics +15, Pilot +8
Possessions: blaster pistol, padded flight suit, glow rod, tool kit

This qualifies as continuity porn

As it's been over a year since I last posted a timeline of events, here is the new, updated timeline, incorporating more of characters' backstories and campaign events. I also took a little bit of liberty with the time measurements, to stretch out how long the campaign has been going on a little bit.

60 years before the campaign

• A merchant ship crashes into the Draethos homeworld. A young On-Warr Bistellion is the only survivor; he is trained by the Keetael master Alhu-Zun in the ways of the Force.

43 years before the campaign

• Bao Koon is born to a mother who is a private investigator and a father who is a Baran Do Sage.

38 to 37 years before the campaign

• The Great Sith War begins. In response to a dark side cult terrorizing the Empress Teta system, a young Jedi named Ulic Qel-Droma decides to infiltrate and destroy them from within, but fails and falls to the dark side. At the same time, another young Jedi named Exar Kun betrays his Master, falls to the dark side, and begins creating an army of alchemical mutants on Yavin IV. When Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma meet for the first time, the spirits of the ancient Sith appear to them, branding Kun the first Dark Lord of the Sith and Qel-Droma his first apprentice. With an army of Sith mutants, Mandalorians, and converted Jedi, Kun and Qel-Droma carve a path of destruction all the way to Coruscant and the Senate Chamber itself. Ulic is finally brought back to the light when he accidentally kills his brother Cay, and he leads the Jedi to Yavin IV, where the combined Jedi destroy Exar Kun and his army. By the time the war is over, many Jedi have been killed or abandoned the Order, the Republic is in tatters, and the Mandalorians have retreated back to the Unknown Regions. These events are detailed in the Tales of the Jedi comic series.

37 to 17 years before

• The Jedi engage in the Great Hunt, searching for and destroying the tarentateks, fierce predators that hunt Force users. These events are detailed in the Star Wars Tales #23 story Shadows and Light.
  
• Ulic Qel-Droma, in self-imposed exile on Rhen Var after turning away from the Sith, is killed by a pilot looking to make a name for himself.
  
• Because of the disastrous events caused by two rogue Knights, the Jedi Order receives more scrutiny from the Republic, and the Council works increasingly with the Supreme Chancellor and the Senate. Under governmental pressure, the Jedi constructs a Temple on Coruscant, which will act as a capital for the Order.
  
• On-Warr Bistellion, already in his thirties, is discovered on the Draethos homeworld by a Jedi Knight and taken into the Order.
• Devo Morden, Kazbich, Gobmush, Kelif Binks-Fett, Lyta Selistan, Dhiel Fek, Rek Luk, Ras Patul, Logger, and Zhen Craval are born.
• Riga the Hutt tries to kidnap the toddler Rek Luk to force a deal with his father, Areta Luk, but the kidnapping is foiled, beginning a lifelong enmity.

30 years before

• Bao Koon is taken as a Jedi Padawan, having already received some Baran Do training from his father.

24 years before

• While on a mission on Nal Hutta, Bao Koon's Master is captured by Riga the Hutt.

17 years before

• Drallon and Haesh are born, and shortly thereafter taken by the Jedi Order for training.

17 to 5 years before

• The Mandalorians, having rebuilt their numbers since the Great Sith War, begin a new crusade by raiding planets in the Outer Rim and Unknown Regions. Because these planets are not members of the Republic, the Senate refuses to intervene.
  
• A few Jedi decide to take the fight to the Mandalorians, over the objections of the Jedi Council, who don't want to get involved in another war. Led by the Revanchist and Alek "Squint" Squinquargesimus, these Jedi work to retake territory stolen by the Mandalorians.
• Cariaga Sin abandons her Jedi training and joins the Revanchists.
• On-Warr Bistellion discovers the alien orphan Aya Lim living on Nar Shaddaa. He trains her in the ways of the Force. Though she is a troubled student, On-Warr eventually decides her training is complete.
• Gobmush wanders the galaxy, working for many different masters, including Gorrak the Hutt, as a bodyguard, surveyor, and hunting guide.
• Lyta finishes her medical training and joins the Republic. She discovers her Force sensitivity and briefly trains with the Jedi under Master Neyeria before leaving.

15 years before

• Bao Koon is knighted.

12 years before

• At the behest of her guardian spirit, Mur Haddin, Ras Patul leaves her homeworld of Umbara to escape her people's "conniving ways." She spends two years on the backwater world of Rishi, training with a lightwhip and keeping to herself.
• Bao Koon takes his first Padawan.

10 years before

• Ras Patul is found by Jedi Covenant member Asa Ulara and taken to the Temple for training.

5 years before

• The Mandalorian Wars begin, with the Mandalorians launching simultaneous attacks in three separate Republic sectors. The Republic is hard-pressed to defend its worlds against the vicious assaults, and the Mandalorians commit various atrocities to goad the Republic into fighting them on their terms. The Jedi Council still refuses to join the war, believing there are greater forces at work behind it.
  
• Zayne Carrick is blamed for the Padawan Massacre of Taris. After living on the run, he eventually uncovers evidence proving his innocence, and the Jedi Covenant, a secret organization of seers dedicated to preventing the Sith from returning, is disbanded. These events are detailed in the Knights of the Old Republic comic series.
• Many of these Covenanters are imprisoned and tried on a case-by-case basis. One of the Jedi Council members vouches for Asa Ulara, and she is allowed to re-join the Jedi Order.
• Aya Lim becomes a doctor in the slums of Nar Shaddaa.
• Ras' family is killed on Umbara in a political struggle.
• Gobmush returns to Gamorr after wandering the galaxy and attempts to find a place with his clan. He makes an enemy of Globmulch, however, who sees Gobmush as a threat to his authority. Gobmush resolves to kill Globmulch, but a rival clan's attack disrupts his plans, and he is enslaved by Gorrak the Hutt.

5 to 1 years before

• The Mandalorian Wars continue in earnest. The Republic is repeatedly devastated by superior Mandalorian forces.
  
• The Revanchist discovers the Mandalorians slaughtered the Cathar people, prompting more Jedi to flock to his banner, creating a schism in the Jedi Order. The Revanchist takes the name Revan. (These events are detailed in Knights of the Old Republic #42.) Many see the Jedi Council as cold and distant, as they continue to be unwilling to get involved in the war and save millions of lives. The Jedi under Revan and Malak's leadership are able to turn the tide of the war.
• Fighting for the Republic during the Mandalorian Wars are Devo Morden (and his squad), Zhen Craval, and Wertsnik. Among those fighting for the Mandalorians are Kazbich, Dhiel Fek, and Kelif Binks-Fett. Mr. Skee fights with the Rodian rangers to protect his homeworld.
• Bao Koon's first apprentice joins Revan to fight the Mandalorians. Devastated by the betrayal, Bao takes Haesh as his new apprentice.
• Ras Patul turns to the dark side, believing she can control Sith artifacts and try to use them for good. On-Warr Bistellion confronts her on Mustafar, where he turns her back to the light.
• Gobmush buys his freedom from Gorrak the Hutt, and begins working for Czerka.

1 year before

• Devo Morden's squad is ambushed just before the Battle of Malachor V, and most of his squadmates are captured. Although he is assigned to lead a battle group at Malachor, he goes AWOL and joins a ragtag groups of adventurers to locate the captured members of his squad.
• Using the taboo world of Malachor V, Revan's forces lure the remnants of the Mandalorians into a trap. While the Mass Shadow Generator destroys the structural integrity of the planet, dooming the ships battling above, Revan personally kills Mandalore, the leader of the Mandalorians.
  
• Revan takes the remaining Republic fleet into the Unknown Regions immediately after, saying that he is pursuing Mandalorian survivors. The fleet is not heard from for a year, leading many to believe they are dead. The Jedi dispatches several Jedi Masters to the Unknown Regions to search for them. On-Warr Bistellion is one of these masters; while searching the planet Endor, he takes the young seer Logger as his apprentice.
  
• The Republic sentences the defeated Mandalorians by destroying their weapons, armor, and ships in front of them, disbanding their clans and letting them settle the Outer Rim. Many become soldiers, mercenaries, bounty hunters, or simple criminals.

Six months before

• A former Mandalorian soldier named Kazbich and his friend Marina Scywel attempt a coup of the Exchange syndicate on Taris, but are betrayed by Kelly, one of Davik Kang's lieutenants. In the ensuing panic, Kazbich and Marina both escape, but are separated. Kazbich loses an arm in the struggle.
• Devo Morden locates the survivors of his old squad, only to find that many died in the original attack or were executed later. He takes up mercenary work for a while before settling on Rodia, where he works with their rangers corps and learns advanced Rodian combat techniques.

One month before

• The Republic shipyards at Foerost suddenly fall under attack; many Republic ships are either destroyed or stolen. The attacking forces hijack the communications relays, and Revan and Malak declare themselves lords of a new Sith Empire. Their army is composed of the Republic soldiers who followed Revan to the Unknown Regions, supplemented by ships of unknown design, including Sith destroyers and Sith fighters. The Jedi Civil War begins.
  
• On-Warr Bistellion is taken captive by Cariaga Sin, one of the Jedi who followed Revan and Malak to the Unknown Regions, now a fearsome Sith.
• Gobmush gets bored working for Czerka, and decides to live on Ithor. He is disappointed to find out he's not allowed to go hunting on the planet's surface.

One week before

• Forcing him to prove his new loyalty to the Sith, Darth Malak orders Admiral Saul Karath to bomb his homeworld of Telos. Telos is the first large population center destroyed by the Sith, dealing a terrible psychological blow to the Republic. Many worlds flock to the Sith banner out of fear or opportunity.

Start of the campaign

• Duros pilot Rek Luk, son of the owner of Luk Shipping, receives a ship from his father, which he dubs the Raraza, and decides to earn money as a Republic agent. He hires Kazbich, a slicer looking for easy credits, and Logger, a Force adept looking for his tribesmen who have been enslaved and his kidnapped master, to crew his ship.
• Jedi Master Vima Sunrider hires the party to travel to Hutt Space to deliver a message to Republic-general-turned-crime-lord Galduran Calrissian, who is believed to have information about the Sith's battle plans. However, upon arriving at Sleheyron, the party finds Galduran is missing.
• Searching for a swoop bike in a junkyard, the party finds and keeps a utility droid, T3-H8. Sponsored by Rodian crime boss Mr. Skee, who wants to see his rival's racer fail, the party wins the Sleheyron swoop championship and learns that Galduran is being held by Riga the Hutt. The party rescues him from Riga's air-conditioned palace on Nal Hutta as it comes under attack by the Sith. Riga had agreed to turn over Galduran to the Sith, but instead decided to sell him to the highest bidder, prompting swift retribution.
• Deep in Riga's palace, Kazbich encounters Kelly for the first time since his betrayal on Taris, but Kelly walks away from a gunfight.
• The party learns from Galduran that the Sith are planning to attack Ithor.
  

A week later

• On Ithor, the party meets up with Gorrak the Hutt, who loans out two of his best people, Zhen Craval and sometimes-freelancer Gobmush. The party helps defend Ithor against the Sith, helping the Republic score its first victory in the Jedi Civil War. The party protects an Ithorian herdship from a saboteur. While storming a Sith cruiser, the party frees On-Warr from Cariaga Sin. After helping Ithor, Zhen leaves, to be replaced by the Shistavanen wolfman Dhiel Fek.
• Inspired by the victory at Ithor, Devo Morden decides to rejoin the Republic as a freelancer.

Three weeks later

• With the support of Gorrak the Hutt and Mr. Skee, Rek Luk goes to Nar Shaddaa in search of information to use against Riga the Hutt. He finds a datapad containing many of Riga's under-the-table deals, but is convinced not to publish it when he finds his dad's name on the list for having made a nonaggression deal with the Mandalorians during the Mandalorian Wars.
• Logger meets Aya Lim, On-Warr's first apprentice. She quickly reveals that she is working with the Sith and attempts to kill Logger, but escapes. T3-H8 is destroyed in the struggle.
• Logger learns that Sair Arcturus, the Corellian slaver who took his fellow Ewoks, has traveled to Taris.
• The party goes to Druckenwell, an industrial planet, for some R&R and to upgrade their ship. They stay there for about six weeks.

2 months later

• The party travels to Taris to track down Sair Arcturus, the slaver who captured Logger's tribe. Dhiel, having once served with the Mandalorians, is also searching for Canderous Ordo, who he believes knew his former commanding officer.
• Logger finds out that Sair Arcturus joined a salvage operation in the Undercity and is believed to be dead. The party mounts an expedition to the lower levels, where they are attacked by rakghouls but find information on Sair's corpse indicating he sold the Ewoks to a buyer on Myzil V.
• Dhiel works with Kazbich's old employers at the Exchange to find Canderous Ordo, and agrees to sell out Kazbich for more information. Kazbich narrowly escapes his old employers, who have hired Calo Nord as new muscle.
• Rek Luk joins House Tresario of the Bounty Hunter's Guild and helps track down the pirate Dyani Zaan, who was in hiding on one of Taris' moons.
• Before taking off for Myzil V, Gobmush's corporate droid contact, GE-3-RX-34, hires on to the group the Gungan mercenary Kelif Binks-Fett and Arkanian lawyer Novin Ealynos, just as Rek Luk sells out Dhiel to the Exchange.

3 months later

• The party arrives at Myzil V. Logger immediately wanders off on his own in search of his tribesmen, and is soon captured by the mysterious Eutix Research Laboratories. Independently, Novin becomes suspicious of Eutix's using alien technology to search the deep levels of the planet and hires himself on as a consultant.
• Rek Luk hits the jackpot at the Aunaumi Casino and rethinks his life plans. He leaves the Raraza to the party — at a cut of the profits, of course — and goes into starship design.
• Kazbich is hired by a Herglic to steal a Sith shuttle from their embassy on the planet. He enlists Gobmush and Kelif to help, but things go horribly wrong: Kazbich shoots a storeowner, and the three of them are arrested for attacking the Sith (as it's a neutral planet). Novin gets them off the hook, and Kazbich gets a reduced sentence for assault. While hunting on a game preserve later for some R&R, Kelif gets into a duel with a Mandalorian Wars veteran, which ends with Kelif humiliated for trying to turn the duel lethal.
• Jedi Padawan Ras Patul and Republic doctor Lyta Selistan arrive at Myzil V, where they will help the Republic in negotiations with the Techno Union, who owns the planet and is deciding between the Republic and the Sith. There, they met up with Republic agents — Novin, Gobmush, Kazbich and Kelif — although the "Republic agents" bit is mostly a cover story by Novin to requisition more resources to find out more about Eutix.
• Ras and Lyta investigate a chemical attack on the Skakoan colony, which was originally unsuccessfully perpetrated by Kazbich; the attack was caused by a Force-sensitive Skakoan who wanted to keep the Republic and Sith away from the planet.
• Gobmush decides to find out more about Eutix by hiding himself in a crate and letting himself get shipped. He wakes up at a distant dig site and radios the rest of the party, who arrives in the Raraza. They find ancient ruins staffed by Eutix employees, and deep inside the planet, holding tanks with many different species inside — as well as a strong taint of the dark side. The party finds Logger and his fellow Ewoks inside, so they release them and make their escape, fighting past dark side dopplegangers the whole time.

3 1/2 months later

• The rest of the Republic diplomatic delegation arrives: Corellian Jedi Master Jenica Vigil and her apprentice, Bastila Shan. The Republic embassy convinces the party to sign up with the Republic properly.
• Bao Koon and Haesh begin quietly tailing the party, Bao having seen a vision of the future that their paths would cross in a meaningful way.
• Kazbich hires a ditzy Zeltron lawyer named Jazz Sharmista on retainer. Lyta decides to hire an assistant of her own, a Mon Calamari named Oro.
• Lyta, Oro, Kazbich, Jazz, and Gobmush cure an outbreak of Cardooinian chills on the Republic ship Champion of Dantooine, discovering that the ship's captain is a traitor and promptly arresting him. Kazbich finds Marina is still alive and in captivity on the Champion, having been arrested recently for smuggling; he frees her and hires her to be the new pilot for the Raraza.
• Ras, Kelif, and Logger track down Aya Lim, who has captured On-Warr and is hiding on Myzil V. After a brief melee, they retrieve On-Warr and Ras tries to convince Aya to abandon the dark side. Aya seems willing to comply, but then Kelif shoots at her and she runs off.
• On-Warr and Logger take the recovered Ewoks back to Endor.
• Negotiations begin between the Skakoan Council for Development, the Sith (represented by Cariaga Sin), and the Republic. During the talks, the serving droids explode, and both sides accuse the other of sabotage. After a short fight, Cariaga Sin escapes, and the Republic forces are arrested on suspicion. Ras and Bastila use the Force to convince the guards to let them go free.
• Republic Commander Levatt tells the party the Sith, ever the sore losers, are planning to destroy the entire colony by bombing the casino, sending it crashing into the Skakoan colony below. Half the party deactivates the bombs while the other half raids the Sith embassy. The bombs are deactivated, but the party at the embassy is captured by Cariaga Sin. Kazbich and Gobmush lead Republic troops to storm the embassy again, driving the Sith away. Myzil V agrees to join the Republic.
• The party examines the security tapes from the negotiations and determines the Sith did not rig the droids to explode. Backtracking where the droids came from, Ras, Gobmush, and Kazbich find that the Herglic who hired Kazbich to steal a Sith shuttle and launch a chemical attack against the Skakoans was responsible but is now dead. Evidence points back to Wertsnik, a Trandoshan shopkeeper Kazbich had met who Ras knew as a Republic secret agent.
• Ras Patul is informed by the Jedi High Council that she has passed her trials and is to now report to Coruscant to be knighted.
• Devo Morden decides to end his freelance relationship with the Republic and becomes chief of security for Aluni Medon on Chommell Prime.

4 months later

• The party travels to Coruscant, where they are met by Crask Luk, Rek's cousin and a hotshot air taxi pilot.
• Lyta pursues medical contacts to form her own Red Cross-type organization. She makes connections in the lower levels among some of the doctors who help the poor.
• Ras and Kelif go to the Jedi Temple, where Kelif searches the archives for information on his homeworld of Naboo, his birth father, and the Mandalorian who convinced him to leave Naboo, Kaius Fett. He is unable to find much, as the world has only recently been colonized. Ras, meanwhile, researches Cariaga Sin, learning more about her past among the Jedi.
• Ras builds her own lightsabers with Master Muz, a Duros artisan. Ras is knighted, and makes her first mission tracking down Wertsnik.
• Kazbich tracks Wertsnik's shuttle to the Works, a factory district on Coruscant, but by the time they get there, it's already been abandoned and the logs have been wiped clean.

4 1/2 months later

• Mr. Skee taps Kazbich to pursue Gaph, a particularly bloodthirsty Ryn crime lord in the lower levels of Coruscant who is using some sort of Sith artifact to his advantage. Lyta finds Gaph has been stealing medical supplies from clinics in the lower levels.
• With the help of a guide, the party tracks Gaph's base to the abandoned deep levels, where most civilized beings fear to tread. The party talks their way into his camp, where Gaph reveals he retrieved a Sith spinal graft from the Draay estate after a Mandalorian terror attack five years ago (this is a reference to Haazen and the Yoke of Seeming from Knights of the Old Republic #32-35). His body is rejecting the implant, and Lyta diagnoses that he needs constant blood transfusions to stay alive. Gaph lets the party go and thanks them for their help, but warns them never to return.
• Ras uses the expertise of the Jedi Masters at the Temple to help track Wertsnik — meeting with a Yarkora at the Galactic History Museum. Asa Ulara helps determine they're meeting a third party the next day at the Royal Icqui Aquaria.
• The next day, the party stakes out the aquarium, but Kazbich is arrested for trying to smuggle guns and death sticks inside, then bribe a guard about it. The rest of the party sees a meeting between Wertsnik, a Yarkora named Nemor, and a Draethos named Alhu-Zun. Alhu-Zun reveals that he engineered the sabotage of the negotiations at Myzil V, as he wanted to stack the deck in favor of the Republic by letting the Skakoan Council believe the Sith were responsible for terror acts on Myzil V — he wants to help the Republic by any means necessary, including committing atrocities for the greater good. He then reveals his considerable mental powers and escapes, Wertsnik and Nemor in tow.

5 months later

• Kazbich is put on trial for his crimes at the aquarium. His case is not helped by Rek Luk, who testifies that Kazbich shot death stick dealers on Sleheyron. Despite his best efforts, Kazbich is sentenced to hard time.
• During Kazbich's trial, Kelif has his Mandalorian armor disguised so he can move around Coruscant freely without being arrested. Ras, doing some research at the Jedi Temple, uses her leadership skills to keep two Jedi Padawans from leaving for the Sith.
• On the way to a holding facility on Coruscant for transfer to a more secure location, Kazbich is knocked out. He wakes up in a strange location, realizing his appearance has been cosmetically altered. Kelly and a man named Rulan appear and tell him that the Genoharadan, a secret assassin society, intercepted his prison van and replaced him with a double. They say they want Kazbich to join their group and have given him a new cover identity to make it possible. They also hint that Kazbich's father was once a member of their secret society. Kazbich takes on a new identity: Yvegeny Reminsky.
• "Yvegeny" rejoins the Raraza crew, claiming to be a black ops Republic agent sent to keep an eye on them. Initially, none of them recognize him as Kazbich, and they accept his presence.
• Gobmush meets up with an old associate, Pedric Graff, and begins to do some corporate muscle work for Czerka, his old employer.
• Marina reveals to the party that she is searching for the lost "treasure planet," Iego. Ras helps her search the Jedi Archives, but doesn't find any concrete information.
• Ras is informed that Lyta's former Jedi Master, a Miraluka named Neyeria, has been murdered while on a mission. Ras, Lyta, and Yvegeny put the squeeze on Prello, a Hutt information broker, and find out Cariaga Sin ambushed and killed Neyeria. The Sith try to lure them into a trap, but the party springs the trap, capturing Cariaga Sin and taking her to the Jedi Temple for holding. Lyta nearly gives into the dark side, but decides not to kill Cariaga Sin after learning Cariaga was really looking for Lyta, because she was also pursuing whoever was behind the negotiations sabotage at Myzil V.
• Ras realizes that Yvegeny is really Kazbich, and meets with the "Kazbich" being held in prison. The double admits that he was surgically altered to look like Kazbich, but his family is being supported for as long as he's in prison.

5 1/2 months later

• A Sith fleet attacks Coruscant by surprise: several Jedi and Republic ships are captured, Darth Malak leads an attack on the planet's water supply, and armored Sith marauder Talvon Esan, known as "the Butcher," attacks the Jedi Temple. The party fights the Sith at the Temple, who nearly destroy the Archives. A Sith strike team kills the captured Cariaga Sin before she can talk. Ras Patul loses an arm and a leg trying to fight Talvon Esan, but emergency care by Lyta recovers her lost limbs. The Republic tracks Talvon Esan's warship, the Devastator, to the Chommell Sector in the Inner Rim, and the Council dispatches several Jedi Knights to investigate different planets in that region. Ras is assigned to the recently colonized Naboo.
• Before the party leaves, Ras pursues Gaph one last time — unaware that Lyta has made a deal with the crime lord to leave her clinics alone. Ras is ultimately frustrated by Yvegeny's attempt to build a legal case against Gaph, and uses the Force to convince Yvegeny he's allergic to death sticks to break his dependence on the drugs.
• Bao Koon receives a new assignment and loses track of the party, not following them to Naboo.
• Upon arriving at Naboo, the Raraza is attacked by Mandalorian gunships claiming allegiance to "Mandalore the Divider." After a short battle, the Raraza is disabled and lands in the wilderness; Ras and Kelif are injured in the crash.
• Gobmush suddenly returns, telling the party he was working for Czerka, who learned Eutix was up to some shady business on Naboo. His ship was also attacked and crash-landed not far away, and he was the only survivor.
• The Raraza is captured by Mandalorians after the party is forced to abandon it in order to head to the nearest settlement, Deeja Peak.
• The party finds Deeja Peak is occupied by Mandalorians, who are forcing the colonists to conscript. Yvegeny steals a modified Republic mess ship, the Capanata, which helps them pose as Mandalorians so they can move about freely.
• The party goes to Theed, to find it's also being held by the Mandalorians. Ras and Yvegeny make contact with a resistance movement and begin making plans to retake the planet. Ras learns that a few escape pods recently landed on the planet — from the Sith. If they can find the Sith officers, they can find out where the Sith went after attacking Coruscant.
• Lyta and Oro continue establishing their medic corps, taking the opportunity to help out the now-destitute colonists.
• Marina tells the party that Yvegeny is actually Kazbich.
• The party visits the Mandalorian war forge, a giant underwater factory that builds new Mandalorian arms, armor, and ships, which accidentally avoided discovery by the Republic after the Mandalorian Wars ended. They free the Sith officers, who were being held prisoner, led by Ordal Naberrie. Naberrie says their navigation officer was in a different escape pod near an abandoned Eutix research site, and agrees to help the party free the planet if they can provide shelter from the Sith once they get off Naboo.

6 months later

• The party checks out the Eutix site, which houses the other Sith officers. The other Sith say they've detected a strange signal coming from deep inside the planet core.
• The Capanata goes to the site of the signal, a hidden Eutix research facility. The Selkath researchers say they're working on midichlorian research on a leech-like predator called a beck-tori. The party talks them out of scuttling the facility, as the beck-tori has the potential to destroy Naboo's ecosystem. The Eutix scientists agree to use their hidden base to help the growing resistance movement.
• The party returns to Deeja Peak, but the Mandalorians have gotten wise to them and arrest them. Ras smuggles her lightsabers into a holding cell and frees the party. Kelif and Yvegeny go on a suicidal rampage through town, drawing attention from the Mandalorians while the rest of the party escapes. After being pinned down by snipers at a barracks, Kelif and Yev set fire to the building, using the smoke as a cover to escape aboard the Capanata.
• The group returns to the Eutix site, finding that many of the colonists used the distraction at Deeja Peak to steal Mandalorian ships and escape. Their resistance movement has grown considerably.
• The party goes to Keren, the capital of Naboo, to begin their liberation. Yvegeny lures the Mandalorian forces into an ambush, then takes the Capanata to secure a captured Republic comm tower that the Mandalorians are using to coordinate their ships. He destroys the facility, disabling Mandalorian communications, and rescues Gobar Binks, who claims to have been the Mandalorian/Gungan liaison. He says he can get some of the Gungans together to help overthrow Mandalore the Divider, and provides intelligence that Mandalore is currently at the war forge. Gobar also reveals he is Kelif's missing father.
• While Gungans and Sith help retake the other Naboo cities, the party launches an attack on the war forge. The party docks and fights its way to the central chambers, taking on Mandalore the Divider himself. He is swiftly killed and revealed to be an imposter: a Neimoidian who built a facsimile of Mandalore's helmet to try to get his own planet. "Mandalore the Divider" is nothing more than a pretender.
• Rek Luk helps retake Naboo and reclaims the Raraza from the party, disappointed to not receive any profits from loaning it out. He also makes inquiries to the Republic about purchasing the war forge and repurposing it for Luk Shipping.
• Gobmush breaks off from the main group, destroys the Eutix facility, and kills the beck-tori, as per his instructions from Czerka.
• Kelif Binks-Fett has a strained reunion with his father, but decides to stay on Naboo and help rebuild. He bids farewell to the party.
• The navigation data provided by the Sith shows that the main fleet went to Chommell Prime after their attack on Coruscant. The Republic sends a fleet there and gives the party some R&R time.
• The party returns to Coruscant. Ras and Yvegeny go to apprehend Gaph once and for all. With the help of a Rodian Genoharadan agent named Shodu, they arrest Gaph, who names Lyta as an accomplice.
• Bao resumes tailing the party upon their return from Naboo.

6 1/2 months later

• Marina leaves the party, saying she'll try to find Iego on her own. She also warns Yvegeny that she made a bad deal, and now someone else (she doesn't know who) knows Yvegeny is really Kazbich. She also says she hired a new pilot for the Capanata, a reprogrammed archive droid named A9G-E5, who Yvegeny nicknames "Aig."
• On his first assignment for the Genoharadan, Yvegeny assassinates Geonosian Senator Mazzag, who had formed a coalition that could drastically alter the balance of power in the Senate.
• The Jedi Assignment Council gives Ras a new Padawan, a Quarren named Drallon. Drallon used to be the apprentice of Muz, the Duros artisan who helps Ras build her lightsabers, before Muz was killed in the attack on the Jedi Temple. Drallon is gunshy about using his lightsaber now, having witnessed such violence close up.
• The Council also assigns another Jedi, the Kel Dor investigator/Republic Intelligence agent Bao Koon and his Yarkora apprentice Haesh, to go with Ras to Chommell Prime.
• Ras, Drallon, Bao, and Haesh sense Aya Lim on Coruscant, but fail to catch up to her before she boards a cruiser to Chommell Prime.
• The party goes to Chommell Prime, a gas giant held by the Medon family, a group of Pau'ans who have helped finance Republic exploration for millenia. The Sith are negotiating for control of the planet, but their fleet is hidden somewhere in the clouds. The party meets up with the fleet, where they're met by Jedi Masters Kavar, Jenica Vigil, and an Aleena tactician named Geis Choi. They're teamed up with Lokksnek, a Trandoshan member of the Republic Diplomatic Corps, and assigned to meet with a young, influential scion named Ladow Medon.
• Ladow reveals he invited both the Republic and Sith to meet with him, and the party is forced to dine with Darth Malak, Undawai (an Arkanian Offshoot scientist), and Stragos (a Cathar financial advisor who used to be a member of the Jedi Covenant).
• The party is approached by Aluni Medon, a young manager who wants to help the Republic. Aluni assigns her chief of security, Devo Morden, to serve as her liaison and Ras' bodyguard. Aluni is the younger sister of Tarn Medon, an influential member of the family, and she promises to try to set up a meeting to convince him to join the Republic.
• The party disrupts a meeting by the Anti-Jedi Alliance and frees Plutara, a Miraluka Jedi who once fought alongside Devo. Devo explicitly avoids seeing her, however.
• Ras helps train Drallon, slowly bringing him out of his shell.
• Ras turns up leads on Aya Lim, but when they run into each other, she runs off. A Gand approaches Ras, saying Aya has since joined the Jal Shey and is working on shaking off the dark side. Ras and Aya meet up and bury the hatchet.
• Ras, Yvegeny, Aya, and her Gand advisor meet with a businessman to help make a fuel deal for the Republic, but it's interrupted by a sniper. Ras and Yvegeny catch up to the sniper, steal his security clearance card, and learn about another Medon, Sabinus, who openly supports the Sith.
• Keane, a crime lord/janitor on the Expanse, the main floating shipyard on Chommell Prime, turns up that a mercenary ship has recently found the hidden Sith fleet.

7 months later

• Aluni sets up a meeting for Tarn Medon. He says he'll support the Republic if the party finds the Sith.
• The party discovers the mercenary who found the Sith is Nasha Luk, Rek's older sister.
• The group plus Nasha borrow a cloaking ship from Tarn Medon and find a hidden drydock deep in the clouds, serving five Sith Centurion cruisers. The party damages the station and frees more than 40 Jedi Padawans who had been captured on Coruscant. They also capture Undawai and Stragos, bringing them back to the Republic fleet.
• Aluni contacts the party, saying she has information they need to hear in person. The meeting turns out to be a trap set up by Sabinus as revenge for having found his Sith allies. The party rescues Aluni, who had been carbon-frozen.

2 years later

• The Jedi set a trap for Darth Revan, capturing him. Darth Malak becomes leader of the Sith Empire. The Sith's battle strategy changes nearly overnight from preserving the infrastructure of conquered planets to merely razing them and slaughtering the people.

3 years later

• Darth Revan, his memory reprogrammed by the Jedi Council, leads the Republic to the Sith Empire's secret weapon, the Star Forge. These events are detailed in the Knights of the Old Republic video game.

8 years later

• A Jedi general, who had gone into exile after the Mandalorian Wars, returns to the galaxy and finds herself the last known Jedi, and the target of a new Sith Triumvirate. These events are detailed in the Knights of the Old Republic 2 video game.

March 6 recap

•The party goes to meet with Aluni, only to find she's been kidnapped.

•An interrogation of a Gen'Dai reveals that Sabinus is taking his revenge on the party for finding his Sith allies.

Having just left the hidden Sith drydock, the party returns to the Honor of Coruscant, with 40+ Jedi Padawans in tow and Undawai and Stragos both unconscious. Drallon and Haesh both help get the Padawans settled while Undawai and Stragos are led to special holding cells that dampen their Force abilities (similar to the mechanisms that kept Plutara held by the Anti-Jedi Alliance). Yvegeny quietly slips Undawai Jazz's business card, saying he knows a good lawyer if she needs one.

Bao Koon and Yvegeny meet with Undawai and Stragos, looking for information. When Yvegeny taunts Stragos asking for stock information (as he's a "financial advisor" and all), Stragos only grunts in return. Bao tries a friendly approach with Undawai, who under pressure admits that there's a Sith fleet hidden in a nearby nebula that will serve as reinforcements in case the negotiations go south. Further, Talvon Esan, the armored Sith who led the attack on the Jedi Temple, is with the hidden fleet. Bao runs off to inform the Jedi Masters about this news.

Left alone with the prisoners, Yev grabs a stun implement and proceeds to ask Stragos for more financial advice, giving him mild shocks. He then taunts Undawai for a while, but she is able to summon the focus to use the Force to choke Yvegeny — who promptly stops laughing. She tells him to open the containment device and free her, and herds him near the controls with her Force grip. He bluffs that he's too disoriented by the pain to work the control panel properly, and she releases her grip. Yev takes the opportunity to run the heck away. He runs into Bao in the hallway, who's sensed that something is wrong. Finger marks clearly visible on his throat, Yev says to stay away from Undawai, but Bao suspects Yev is up to something and merely walks away.

Yvegeny receives medical care from a doctor on the ship and spends the rest of the day watching "All My Jedi." Devo files a report with Tarn Medon about what they found — the Sith shipyard, which was only lightly guarded — and makes sure to make the party sound good. Bao confers with Masters Kavar, Vigil, and Choi. Ras goes to speak with Undawai and Stragos — when she enters the room, they're chuckling about Undawai's having choked Yvegeny. Ras asks why they joined the Sith, to which Undawai argues that the Sith are more individualistic — you can take whatever you want and be in charge of your own destiny, instead of being a slave to the Jedi Council or the Republic. Ras is uninterested and leaves.

The next day, Aluni Medon leaves a message for Devo, saying she has proprietary information for him that she needs to deliver in person. She provides an address on the Expanse, a carbon-freezing facility mostly manned by droids, where irolunn gas is processed and frozen for transportation. The party assembles to meet up with Aluni and goes to the Expanse. Deep inside the carbon-freezing facility, they find two Gen'Dai at the carbon-freezing chamber, who assure them that Aluni is on her way.

Devo thinks it's odd that neither of them recognize him, seeing as how he's Aluni's chief of security. Yvegeny pretends to be a mechanic, and Bao chats up the Gen'Dai, who talk about being on security detail. Devo draws his rifle sneakily, and asks what the Gen'Dai do for Aluni. They're nervous enough with their answers (and terrible enough liars) that the entire party realizes it's a trap. As Yev gets up to leave, claiming to have fixed the steam vent, one of the Gen'Dai tries, and fails, to knock him into the carbonite freezing pit.

Guns are drawn and a fight breaks out. The Gen'Dai enjoy the early benefit of surprise, surprising the party with the strength of their Echani fighting technique. Devo is knocked into the pit early on, and knocked again when he tries to get up. Yvegeny tries to access the freezing controls, but only succeeds in venting more steam. Ras and Bao take turns using their psychic powers to eventually knock one of the Gen'Dai unconscious, and when the other one sees his companion go down, he makes a run for it — only for Devo to blast him in the back of the head, killing him (no easy feat). The party decides the best way to transport their Gen'Dai prisoner is to freeze him in carbonite. They test it out on the dead one first, then freeze the unconscious one. A few labor droids help haul the frozen Gen'Dai to the party's shuttle.

Devo decides the best course of action is to go to Aluni's estate to find out what happened. When they get there, Aluni's greeter droid tells Devo that Aluni was summoned to meet with Sabinus Medon at the carbonite chamber about an hour before she called the party. Devo realizes that Aluni probably was forced to message him under duress. He gathers the rest of her security team and has them scour the rest of the estate for any signs of tampering. After determining the facility is secure, he hauls the frozen Gen'Dai prisoner to the docking bay for interrogation, with the party and two security guards behind. They comm A9G, who says that Gen'Dai care how their bodies are handled after death because they don't have a homeworld proper, and hiding the body where it can't ever be found is a grave offense to them. Devo plans to threaten the prisoner with shoving his body down into the gas giant, where it can't ever be found.

They thaw out the prisoner, but he's blind and disoriented. Devo reveals that he already knows Sabinus had them take out Aluni and wants to know where she is, but the Gen'Dai isn't much talking. Ras uses the Force to get the truth out of him — that Sabinus sent them to kidnap Aluni, confirming what Devo knows. The Gen'Dai further reveals that Sabinus is acting against Aluni now because he knows that she's been seeing the Jedi, and those same Jedi (Ras and Bao) exposed his Sith allies and found his hidden drydock — it's revenge he's after. On further prodding, he also says Aluni is being held at one of Sabinus's warehouses on the Expanse, but he doesn't know how well guarded she is.

Yvegeny asks about throwing the dead one into the heart of Chommell Prime, prompting the prisoner to panic and ask for a lawyer. Yev picks up the dead Gen'Dai's comlink and comms the last number, letting the prisoner say he's being held captive before Yev rambles that if Sabinus Medon wants him back, they'd better hurry because he'll be missing a head, and that Yev's coming for them. When the confused person on the other end asks who it is, Yev simply says "K" and hangs up. Yev leaves with the dead frozen Gen'Dai, taking him to the Capanata, docked with the Honor of Coruscant, to decorate his room. The Gen'Dai prisoner says that Yev probably contacted his pharmacist.

Devo knows that those who break the law on Chommell Prime are turned over to a quorum of the Medons, so he decides to hold their prisoner on Aluni's estate until he can be bound for trial. The party will need to consider its full allies — the Republic, the Jedi, Tarn Medon, Aya Lim — if it wants to take on Sabinus Medon, but first they need to rescue Aluni. Yev calls up Shodu, the Rodian assassin from the Genoharadan (which no one else knows about), to help out for 4,000 credits. The party is confused by his repeated helping the party for credits, but accepts it anyway.

They arrive at the warehouse where Aluni is being held; Devo and Bao decide to go around back to cut off any escape. Shodu kicks the door open, but his gun jams, giving the Gen'Dai time to rush the party. Devo breaks the door off its hinges and sneaks around back through some crates with Bao, where they spot the carbon-frozen body of Aluni Medon. (Hey, if you've got a captive you need to transfer easily, don't want to feed, and don't want to hear whine, carbon-freezing is the way to go.) Yvegeny kills one of the Gen'Dai with a devastating shot, prompting the other one to run off — and see Devo and Bao cutting off his escape. He charges at Devo, but is promptly knocked unconscious.

The warehouse is secure; one Gen'Dai is dead, the other unconscious; and the carbon-frozen Aluni Medon has been located.

DM's Notes:

• Fun fact: Jedi imprisonment devices do not completely inhibit Force-users; they just give them a big penalty to their checks, as Yvegeny was unfortunate enough to find out.
• Since so little is known about the Gen'Dai, I'm feeling free to expound on their culture however I feel. I figure an extremely long-lived species like them with no known homeworld cares where their bodies end up when they finally die.

February 18 recap

•The party finally meets with possible Republic ally Tarn Medon.

•Another Luk relative helps find the shipyard hiding the Sith.

•A dangerous mission leads to the rescue of several Jedi Padawans and the capture of two Sith.

The party wakes up the next day to a message left by Aluni Medon. When Devo contacts her, she provides the list of more than 20 Medons who have given their support to the Sith, and also has good news: She's arranged a meeting between the party and her more influential brother, Tarn Medon. Yvegeny, who's volunteered to take the fall for using Tarn's name to get access to Klorr and the Anti-Jedi Alliance, says he'll hang back from the meeting, and instead works on altering the security clearance card he got from Endus Piett, Sabinus Medon's security guy, in the previous session. He tests it out by going to a local business, who buys it hook, line, and sinker.

Bao asks Haesh how he got him out of jail, to which Haesh admitted that he knows Bao's banking passwords. Bao says that Haesh owes him back the money he spent, though Haesh points out that the money is a stipend from the Jedi Order and that Bao shouldn't be attached to his possessions anyway; regardless, he spent the money to get Bao out of jail, a mission expense that shouldn't have been incurred in the first place. Nevertheless, Bao is adamant. Meanwhile, Ras tells Drallon that this mission may become very dangerous, and Drallon agrees to (finally) pick up his lightsaber again.

Snivvian pilot Prinzen flies the party to Tarn Medon's floating estate, which is three times larger than Ladow Medon's and is the height of luxury. The party is met by Gen'Dai servitors, who lead them to Tarn's study. Tarn is an older Pau'an gentleman, and when he meets them, he is wearing a luxurious robe and carrying a snifter of thousand-year-old Alderaanian wine. He introduces himself to the party and offers them wine. The party introduces themselves, then explains that Yvegeny is not present because he is taking the blame for using Tarn's name falsely. Tarn explains that his name is very important to him, as it opens many doors, and it can't be used by just anyone. He's also more than amused at the situation and smirks about having "four Jedi begging for forgiveness," though he does say he's glad they arrived to apologize in person — it shows they have strong character.

Tarn says he has stayed neutral thus far because he wants to see what both sides have to offer — discretion is the better part of valor. He says he'll support the Republic if the party finds the hidden Sith fleet — thus removing their advantage in the negotiations, namely that the Medons can't rat them out to the Republic. (This is fortunate, as the party recently learned from Keane that there's a mercenary ship on the station that has been to the hidden Sith drydock.) Ras asks to borrow a Gen'Dai for the mission, but Tarn says no; if anyone spots one of his Gen'Dai with the party, they'll know he was involved and there could be repercussions. However, he does volunteer the use of one of his scouting ships — complete with cloaking device — and a pilot to fly them.

Yvegeny decides to use his security card to check out the mercenary ship, the Relevant, that Keane told the party had seen the Sith drydock — Yev suspects that it's flying supplies back and forth to the Sith. Visiting the docking bay, he finds the ship is a Citadel-class cruiser run by a female Duros. He claims to be a customs inspector from Sabinus Medon, and after quizzing him on his homeworld and birthdate, she reluctantly goes along with his inspection. She shows that she's transporting food and sundries, but she resists allowing Yev to look through her computers; she'll say where she's been (most recently Duro, Taris, and Corellia), but she's loathe to let someone go through her computer system. Yev promises to come back with an order from the dock master, then. He points out that she reminds him of another Duros he knew, Rek Luk, and checks out the Relevant's engine before heading to the dock office. There, he files for a search with Dock Master Chester, who is obviously too fat and lazy to care; Yev leaves a bribe to be able to get to it soon.

The party meets up again on the Expanse, and waits for Chester to file the search request so they can check out the Relevant. After about an hour, Yvegeny gets the call to see the ship. When the party visits the ship, the female Duros is quite suspicious, pointing out it doesn't take six people (Yev, Devo, Ras, Drallon, Bao, and Haesh) to inspect one ship — so what's really going on? Everybody decides to come clean; the party says they're looking for the Sith drydock and the Duros introduces herself as Nasha Luk. Ras points out that they used to fly a ship belonging to Rek Luk, and she says Rek's her younger brother. She's got no love for the Sith — she's been flying around on behalf of Luk Shipping to scout out a good spot to harvest irolunn gas when she happened to spot the Sith Centurion-class battlecruisers there. She'd be more than willing to show them where the Sith fleet is hidden.

The party plus Nasha goes to the ship provided by Tarn Medon — a luxurious scout ship called the Lockheed, piloted by Til the Zabrak and equipped with a cloaking device. It's a several-hours-long flight to the hidden drydock, during which Nasha points out to Yvegeny that she didn't really believe he was a customs inspector, though the forgery is otherwise pretty good.

As they get near the hidden facility, Til turns on the cloaking device so they can better approach the drydock: a large facility housing five Centurion-class battlecruisers (which look damaged, though they're slowly being repaired), and as they get in closer, they can see several captured Republic ships, which were probably tractor-beamed during the attack on Coruscant. Bao tries to pinpoint their location so they can alert the Republic where they are, but can't quite track them accurately, due both to cloud interference and Sith jamming, leaving them with no way to call in the reinforcements.

The party debates what to do: sneak aboard? Call for Republic aid? Try to blow up the station? The ship, still cloaked, docks with an emergency hatch, and Bao senses through the Force that the station and ships contain many dark Jedi, Undawai and Stragos, as well as about 40 Jedi Padawans who are being held captive. (The plan to destroy the facility goes out the window then.) This changes everything, as now they feel obligated to rescue the Padawans.

Yvegeny splits off from the rest of the party to fulfill his mission. As Ras, Bao, their Padawans, Devo, and Nasha head off to rescue the Padawans, Yev dons his stealth field generator and effortlessly sneaks past plenty of Sith troopers to get to the main power generator, setting explosive charges there. On his way to the jammer, he detonates the generator, which causes the entire station to rumble and the hallways to go to emergency lighting. Many of the Sith run for their ships while the maintenance droids scurry around.

On his way to the jamming station, however, Yvegeny is caught by a red-armored Sith commando; Yev bluffs that he's a technician, but the commando orders him to report to the Devastator (Talvon Esan's ship). On the way there, Yev fakes a heart problem and collapses, distracting the commando long enough for Yev to draw his blaster and shoot him dead. Yev continues to head for the jammer controls, but when he tries to hack through the system, he gets locked out, and the blast doors close around him, trapping him in the control room.

The rest of the party soon arrives at the holding area, where they find energy-walled cells guarded by Sith troopers. When the Sith approach to ask who they are, Ras uses the Force to make them run away in fear. Bao hacks the controls and opens the cells, freeing the 40+ Padawans. Ras senses that Yvegeny is in trouble, however, and they may be too late if they escort the Padawans back to the ship themselves. Ras hands off her spare lightsaber to one of the older Padawans, and Drallon and Haesh agree to lead them back to Tarn's ship. Ras, Bao, Devo, and Nasha head to rescue Yvegeny, but not before Ras stops by the backup generator and uses the Force to drain its power, which knocks out some of the emergency lighting and also should keep anyone from opening Yev's blast doors. (Incidentally, this also knocks out the jammer, though fortunately, it does not knock out the repulsorlifts keeping the facility afloat.)

Yvegeny finds himself standing alone in the dim light; frustrated, he shoots the computer panel, but nothing happens. After a few minutes of sitting with his glow rod, he notices a red lightsaber starting to cut through one of the blast doors. When the Sith realize who's in there, they stop using their lightsabers and instead blow the door down with explosives, revealing Undawai (now in white medical armor), Stragos, and a group of Sith troopers.

Not at all pleased to see him, Undawai begins strangling Yvegeny through the Force. Yev grabs a grenade to drop — just like he did when grabbed at the Temple attack on Coruscant — but Stragos appears ready to hurl the grenade away as soon as it hits the floor. It is at this moment that (fortunately) the rest of the party arrives — Devo sneaks up and prompts shoots Undawai, disrupting her concentration enough to drop Yev. Yev lobs his grenade at the Sith troopers while Ras uses the Force to hurl them away. Stragos ignites two lightsabers and engages Devo in melee, but is slowly weakened and eventually knocked unconscious. Ras faces Undawai, lightsaber to lightsaber, and finally achieves the perfect balance of her new lightsaber form. Despite Undawai's attempts to heal herself, Ras knocks her unconscious as well. Cuffing their two prisoners, the party heads back to their ship and flies away — standing room only, as they're carting 40+ Jedi Padawans — then comms the Republic, telling them they've found the shipyard.

DM's Notes:

•Between the Relevant and Dock Master Chester, I need to have more NPC names available at the ready.

•Nasha Luk is based on discussions Jake and I had months ago when we were planning a spin-off Star Wars game called "The Rek Luk Chronicles." We got to talking about whether Rek had any siblings, and Jake decided he had an older sister who was also involved in Luk Shipping. "The Rek Luk Chronicles" never panned out — it would've been a much more episodic, much less continuity-heavy campaign where the players are criminals working for the Exchange — but it did give me some ideas.

•I'm amused by the fact that I keep writing adventures that are unintentionally very similar to other story elements either within the campaign or the Star Wars saga in general. Aside from Undawai being a lot like an evil Lyta, the entire "going onto the space facility to rescue the prisoners" is very much like Luke and Han's trip to the Death Star in A New Hope.

Been there, done that

In the new book Galaxy of Intrigue, there's a new Noble talent called "Done It All." When you pick the talent, you get to pick two non-prestige class talents that you meet the prerequisites for but don't already have. Once per turn on your turn, as a free action, you can spend a Force Point to gain the benefits of one of your pre-selected talents until the end of your next turn.

So my question is, what two talents would you pick? There are plenty of different things you can try to do with this talent. (I'm reading the talent to mean that you can pick talents from any base class, not just the Noble class. Of course, you can't pick any Force talents without already being Force-sensitive.)

February 16 recap

•Ras and Yvegeny find Aya Lim is trying to turn her life around.

•A business meeting turns into a chase, where Ras and Yev learn about a Medon who supports the Sith.

Ras goes to meet with Aya Lim at the behest of her Gand friend, and comms Yvegeny to help her out. They meet at a middle-end restaurant, the Dewdrop Inn & Tavern, where they find the Gand sitting at the table nervously perusing the menu. He waves them over and says hello, then comms Aya to come in — she was concerned that perhaps Ras was there to arrest her with a contingent of guards.

Aya comes in, sits down, and begins talking to Ras, Drallon and Yvegeny. She explains that she hasn't worked with the Sith in a long time, and after her encounter with Ras, Logger, and Kelif on Myzil V, she wandered the galaxy looking for direction before meeting up with her new Gand friend. She's taken up with the Jal Shey — she wants to bring her Force abilities under control, and the Jal Shey's scholarly, intellectual approach to the Force appeals to her — and the Gand is her advisor. She thanks Ras for turning her on the path to redemption, and she admits that she has some way to go yet, but she is learning to keep her emotions in check. As for what she was doing on Coruscant, she explains that she's been using her medical expertise to try to help out the poor on Coruscant.

She says she's on Chommell Prime to try to help the Republic, having heard about their considerable presence on the planet now. She and the Gand are going to meet with a Devaronian businessman, Krek Urghey, who owns a large stake in a starship fuel facility that he is considering selling to the Republic, and Aya asks if Ras and Yvegeny would like to help. They agree. Yvegeny does a little research and finds out Krek has been courted pretty hard by Czerka Corporation, but he was once on a ship that was saved from pirates by a Jedi.

On the way to the Foie Gras restaurant to meet Krek, Aya asks after the rest of the party. Ras explains that Logger found his people and went home, On-Warr was last seen taking him back to his homeworld, Kazbich is "in jail," and Kelif is helping rebuild Naboo (Aya does not remember Kelif fondly). At the restaurant, Ras inquires to Krek about the mine — the Peragus Mining Facility, in fact — and Krek says the problem is that the fuel is highly explosive, and there have been many accidents already on the facility. Ras raises the possibility that Czerka is staging accidents to pressure Krek to sell to them, to which Krek notes that they have offered him a hefty sum for his stake.

Suddenly, during the conversation, Krek is shot in the back from across the street, and Aya quickly spots the shooter, a human man who runs off. Ras, Yvegeny, and Drallon hustle after the shooter through the city streets, using their acrobatic skills to slip through crowds without getting slowed down. After a brief sprint, they catch up to the shooter, who draws his rifle and shoots; after a brief melee, Yvegeny knocks the shooter to the ground while Ras disarms him and Drallon tries to convince him to talk. The attack has drawn a crowd, though, and rather than deal with the approaching Gen'Dai guards, they drag him into an alley.

The shooter insists it was "just a job" and admits he works for Sabinus Medon — a name with which Ras and Yvegeny are not familiar. Yvegeny takes his rifle and ID — a high-security clearance card similar to the one Devo Morden has, identifying him as Endus Piett. The party lets Piett go, and he runs off.

Back at the Foie Gras, a medical team is tending to Krek, and Aya says she's stabilized him — he should survive. She seems upset that she wasn't able to act in time, but Yvegeny convinces her that it's okay and she's not all-powerful. Aya excuses herself and comms someone — both Ras and Yvegeny overhear her explaining the situation to Lokksnek, the Trandoshan diplomatic envoy from the Republic, with whom she seems to be working.

Yvegeny does a little research on Sabinus Medon — he's one of the older Medons, and pretty influential. He's a big proponent of the Medons staying important in the galaxy, and he's also a vocal proponent of joining the Sith.

Deleted Scenes

In this post, just for fun, I'm going to detail some of the plots and ideas I thought of but didn't use in the campaign, just to give a peek behind the GM's screen.

The Jedi patron who wasn't

My original idea from level 1 was to have the party working for a "patron" who would give them missions and rewards, and my intent was to use Vima Sunrider, an important character from the Tales of the Jedi comics who would be a Jedi Master by now. As the party grew in cohesion, however, I stopped feeling like it was necessary — we already had something of an arc going in Rek's quest to take down Riga the Hutt and Logger's searching for the enslaved Ewoks — so I phased it out. Likewise, Galduran Calrissian was going to be a recurring character, but I didn't really have a good handle for what to do with him and let him fade into the background.

Rek Luk, fugitive from justice

This is probably one of the biggest and most controversial things I would have done in the campaign, and I came this close to doing it. Rek Luk had it in for Riga the Hutt because of an assassination attempt as a kid, and by the time the party was on Nar Shaddaa, Rek was doing everything he could to go after Riga. In an attempt to make a more interesting villain than just another Jabba, however, I'd said Riga was more into blackmail and coercion: he'd rather tarnish your name and leave you friendless than kill you outright, and he had his hands in all sorts of governments and businesses. (I still have plans for Riga, but I don't plan to use this arc anymore, because Rek's no longer in the party.)

Anyways, in the course of the adventures on Nar Shaddaa, Rek came across a datapad from one of Riga's people, detailing some of his schemes, and intended to broadcast it to discredit Riga. Rek was smart enough to read it first and notice his own dad's name was on there (Areta Luk had made some deals with the Mandalorians during the Mandalorian Wars to try to protect his company), so he dropped his plans.

My plan if Rek had leaked Riga's data (without reading it) was twofold. The Republic learns of Areta Luk's deals with the Mandalorians, arrests Areta, and effectively suspends Luk Shipping while they're doing a full investigation. To add insult to injury, Riga frames Rek Luk for the murder of a Republic agent (there was a scene we did play out on Nar Shaddaa where Rek meets with one of Riga's people, who gives him a blaster as a "peace offering"; that blaster would've turned out to be the murder weapon), making Rek a fugitive from justice. He'd lose access to his wealth and status, and the campaign arc then would've been trying to find evidence to clear his name, while on the run from the Republic (as well as corrupt agents in Riga's pocket, who are told to "shoot him in the back and say he was resisting arrest").

Aya Lim the loyal Jedi

I did not originally write Aya Lim to be a recurring bad guy; she was On-Warr's first student before Logger, after all. When they met on Nar Shaddaa, she would've taught him some stuff about the Force and shared some general wisdom. I think I had a small arc planned involving her trying to find a cure for a disease on Nar Shaddaa (she was very much like Mordin Solus, a sort of "slum doctor"). After Aya's first appearance, however, I felt like that wasn't that interesting; I wasn't really sure what she was supposed to teach him, and it didn't really make for compelling roleplaying. So I changed it that she had become very frustrated by her inability to make a significant difference helping people on Nar Shaddaa, and so she worked with the Sith because they offered her greater resources with few strings attached. And that really became the heart of Aya Lim — that she became evil with good intentions — and made her probably one of the most morally complex characters I've ever done in a campaign. I try not to overuse her, but I do like that she is very conflicted about her place in the galaxy.

Dhiel becomes Mandalore

When Dhiel began tracking his "Mandalorian father," I had it in my head to create a big arc that would have the Mandalorians be sort-of allies, sort-of enemies — the party would visit some of their planets in the Outer Rim, and watch them struggle to adapt to their exile — and ultimately, Dhiel would find the helmet of Mandalore and become their leader. This would continue throughout the campaign, until near the very end, Dhiel would pass off the leadership to Canderous (fulfilling his role as Mandalore from KOTOR 2). Of course, Dhiel died, and the arc fell by the wayside, and I decided to go with a group of Mandalorians under a false leader instead on Naboo. As it is, the party has not really met many "true" Mandalorians; those on Naboo were wannabes, and the exiles are still out there.

Marina the Republic agent

This was a rare case of me changing a story to screw with the party. On Myzil V, I was trying to get the party working for the Republic again, to give it a little bit of direction that I felt was lacking. One of the ways the Republic was going to keep an eye on the party was through Marina, Kazbich's old partner. The story was going to be that Marina had secretly joined the Republic after her caper on Taris (in Kazbich's backstory) went wrong — they offered her protection from the Exchange in return for her services — and then sent back to Kazbich in a believable way so the Republic could keep an eye on the party. However, after Marina had already been in the party for a few sessions, Jake casually mentioned that he figured Marina was probably going to betray the party at some point, since most of the NPC allies did, so to go against type, I changed her backstory to be that she'd been on the run since Taris and she wasn't working for the Republic.

I tried to think of interesting ways to integrate her into the party on Coruscant and Naboo, but I never really got a great idea for what to do with her (other than her hunt for Iego, the "treasure planet"), so she kind of fell by the wayside and I replaced her with A9G-E5, who I think has more personality anyway. I do intend to follow up on Marina at some point, but not for a while.

More Jenica Vigil

One of the first characters I thought up when I was conceiving of a KOTOR-era campaign was Bastila's master. I was interested in what kind of upbringing Bastila had that she was sort of a "Jedi princess" and acted all stuck up in the KOTOR 1 video game. I also wanted to explore Jedi personalities, because I don't want them all to be stoic, perfect know-it-alls and KOTOR is the era where the Jedi Order is a lot more liberal and less dogmatic. The answer was Jenica Vigil (whose name I got from a random Corellian name generator in Star Wars Gamer magazine), who had been a very powerful and famous Jedi Knight in her youth — a lot like Bastila herself — so she always pushed Bastila hard to be the best, but wasn't always great about acknowledging Bastila's achievements or reassuring her, and so a lot of Bastila's personality would be explained that she was constantly trying to prove herself to her Master during her training and was always trying to live up to Jenica Vigil's shadow.

I had planned for Jenica Vigil to be a more constant presence in the campaign, but I fumbled a few rolls with her during her first appearances, so the party doesn't seem to have much respect for her. I am glad I brought her back for Chommell Prime, though.

Eutix is watching you

When the group got to Coruscant, one of the recurring things was that after their encounter on Myzil V, the party was going to be constantly harassed by Eutix. It was going to be a lot of subtle things — the party always feels like it's being followed. (Gobmush's corporate contacts would've come into play here.) One scene I had written involved the party traveling somewhere by air taxi and "accidentally" being rammed by a droid-driven Eutix freighter, leading to a big skill challenge-type scene to not fall out of the sky. However, this fell by the wayside once the party got interested in going after Gaph, the Ryn crime lord. Eutix lives on, however; they were behind the beck-tori project deep underwater on Naboo, which gave some insight into some of their darker experiments — midichlorian studies.

Not related to Eutix, but one subplot idea I had for Coruscant was that the Jedi Temple was undergoing something of an upheaval, as there was going to be a group of Jedi Padawans who were planning to leave the Order to join the Sith, and they were trying to convince as many people as they could to join them. I ended up not using it — I think I just plain forgot about it — but I did acknowledge it in my recent Holonet News post, with "54 Jedi unaccounted for, believed to have willingly joined the Sith."

Always in motion is the future

While on Taris studying with On-Warr, Logger had a vision of the future, and I had intended for this to be clues to future events; unfortunately, none of these events ever happened, making me feel pretty silly. The Ewok vision I'll cover in the next bit, but two I have to touch on. One vision was Kazbich in a shootout in what looked like a museum; I had intended at some point to go to Alderaan to get involved in some royal intrigue there, but that never got past the idea stage. The other vision was Dhiel and Gobmush on a desert planet facing a Twi'lek woman on a crashed ship. Back then, half the party still worked for Gorrak the Hutt or was on friendly terms with him, so I'd originally intended him to play a much bigger role. The Twi'lek woman was from Gobmush's backstory (which I cannot find right now), a slave-turned-vigilante who had it in for Gorrak. She would've attacked Gorrak's ship, sending it crashing into a desert planet (possibly Tatooine, I hadn't decided), and Dhiel and Gobmush would've heard the distress beacon, sending them off to rescue him. As we lost Dhiel, however, Gorrak faded into obscurity.

Planets we never visited

Two planets I had fully intended us to travel to and never did were Arkania and New Plympto. Back before we had the planet design contest, I had intended for the Ewoks to be held by a corporate geneticist working for Adascorp on Arkania, using them as slave labor to look for Sith artifacts beneath the planet's surface. Once I decided Andy's planet, Myzil V, won the planet contest, however, I decided to relocate them there and change the story, using Eutix instead of Adascorp and using the Ewoks for genetic experiments instead of slave labor.

New Plympto was originally going to be the planet we traveled to after Taris. I even wrote up the first adventure (though I lost it back in the Great Hard Drive Crash of May '09). The party would've been sent by the Republic to pick up a Jedi Master on New Plympto, only when the party emerged from hyperspace, the Sith were attacking the planet. I wrote out a pretty badass encounter of the Raraza having to duck through a Sith blockade and avoid enemy fighters (I knew Jake wanted more space combat, so I'd planned to open the session with it). The Raraza would've been hit hard enough to force a landing and repairs at a small Republic camp. The party would get involved in helping the Republic and the native Nosaurian commandos hit a Sith supply convoy in the forest, but when they get back, the Raraza's been stolen. Dun dun dun! (Yes, I had the idea for taking away the Raraza, if only temporarily, as early as Myzil V. I'm so glad I finally got to on Naboo.)

However, at this point I was sitting on the planet contest entries, and at the very last minute (I think it was the day of game) I decided to switch to Myzil V because I didn't want to postpone going to the winning planet, and I decided Myzil V would be more about political intrigue than Sith invasion. Hence the hasty "Oh, there's a Sith Interdictor waiting for you when you get out of hyperspace" when the party arrived there so I could get in some space combat. The whole session could've used a lot more planning — I would've liked that starship encounter to be much more organic — but overall, I think Myzil V ended up being the best choice, and hey, we started doing small-group games because of that planet.